I am prepared.
My preferred attire for blackfly season:
http://simage1.sportsmansguide.com/adimgs/l/2/219046_ts.jpg
Black flies v mosquitos
These are not the same bugs for some of us. By the time I have been bitten up the first few weekends of warm weather, it takes a fresh hatch of mosquitoes to much bother me. Short of unusual events like the new breeding right after Irene and Lee last September, even getting bit by them hadn’t given me much of an itch for a couple of months. I still don’t like the sounds of them buzzing around me looking for an opening, but I get fairly non-responsive to the bites themselves.
But black flies are different for me. Nasty welts and itching that lasts for a few weeks from one area of bites, and it can only be killed by steroidal creams. All fly bites are different for me than mosquito bites, but the cluster bites from black flies are particularly bad.
Matt, do you have a bug shirt and some repellent spray that you can impregnate into a hat with a bring? It’s not perfect, but the two combined help a lot to defer the black flies.
Original Bug Shirt
works VERY WELL and is comfortable.
I think red necked bi peds build up a resistance to black flies after years of exposure. Sort of an immunity. Might be psychological - maybe physiological. No one knows for sure.
Hate to see you plan trips around black flies. But you wouldn’t be the first to do so and there certainly is no shame in it. If it is your first experience with flies it could well put a significant damper on your trip. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. On the otherhand - if you push through the discomfort and make the best of it you’ll be better for it!
urban dweller…
I am not an urban dweller nor a newbe to backcountry trips. but…I like my trips to be enjoyable. if I am just going to be attacked by annoying swarming bugs then I will go another time.
I have nto experienced black flies but have heard they can be terrible.
Matt
Well . . .
If someone is asking about blackflies—as in, “Do they bite?”—it’s likely they don’t live in a place with blackflies. General definition of “urban area” is “place without blackflies.”
urban not dweller
the point is that for me living with the things…well I would rather be canoeing than doing yardwork or painting the house and covering the house with BF in the paint.
I do think that when one has to live with them ( if there is such a misery as it means there is clean running water nearby) there is more acceptance of it is what it is.
Sometimes there is no outwitting them. There are five hatches of them here in Maine…cant speak for the Adirondacks as I don’t live there. So to speak you could stay away from canoeing in Maine all canoe season if BF avoidance wee the goal.
In that case
maybe summer would suit you better. Black flies are gone by the end of June and mosquitoes diminish (but don’t disappear) by late August (I think).
Actually I think your worries are well founded now that I think about it more. On a scale of 1 to 10 I would rate spending an hour in the woods with large numbers of black flies, unprotected, about a 10 on the agony scale. The question is how much various forms of protection would improve the experience for you personally, compared to people who are more used to black flies.
Always the black fly no matter where you
– Last Updated: Apr-22-12 7:43 PM EST –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjLBXb1kgMo&feature=related
But, if you yearn for true adventure you must endure the black fly -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th-WDf42rG0&feature=related
If not the black fly surely there will be some equally obnoxious pest guarding access to the few truly wild places remaining on this good earth.
We never had black flies here in
N. central MA before about 18 years ago. Mosquitoes aplenty, but no black flies. They’ve only just come out here this season, early like everything else. It’s been freaky dry until today, though, and I was hoping for the best. Oh, well.
The worst experiences with them I’ve had were in NH and the worst of the worst was on Thoreau’s Island on the west branch of the Penobscot in September!! No place to run to there. I remember actually wondering if I might lose it.
khaki color works well…and pick up a
– Last Updated: Apr-24-12 11:08 PM EST –
dark tinted headnet...it'll work well. The darker tint reflects less light towards your eyes and seeing out is a lot easier. One note...if your head of hair hasn't thinned any..you'll be fine, OTHW glueing two strips of styrafoam(sp?) together as a cross...fitting the top of your head comfortably will keep the headnet up off your skin by .5". If flush on top of your head there's no barrier to keep the flies from reaching your skin/scalp...believe me they'll find your skin if possible. Kind of round off the ends to fit your head....HA, this sounds like a paranoid paddler's remedy...but once on...they won't touch ya'. I guess if you enjoy wearing somekind of hat(inside the net) = same solution.
Now just go have a great time...what canoe you using? I haven't been out yet...4wd maintenance, but plan on it soon. In some years, with lower water, the early hits of blackflies and mosquitoes have gotten burned off by early-to-mid July, but then it's often impossible to predict anything up here(Maine).
Best recipe I’ve found.
Will try it out soon. Now for the bottle of Tequilla.
the cold…
I like to go to the ADKs in October when the cold has killed off all the bugs. Personally I like the fall colors and the brisk days and cold nights.
That’s the best way to avoid the blackflies! I actually make very few overnight paddling trips when the night temps are above freezing. This wa going to be one of my few.
However, I have decided to do the west branch of the Susky and I think it is going to be a great trip. Leaving in the mornign!
matt